


Last chance

by toutdoucement



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, Not Episode Related, Not a Crossover, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-19
Updated: 2006-07-19
Packaged: 2019-03-02 05:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13311408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toutdoucement/pseuds/toutdoucement
Summary: Kate's ex fiancÃ© come back in her life !





	1. A stake-out

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Jessi, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [ MTAC](https://fanlore.org/wiki/MTAC), an archive of NCIS fanfiction which closed in 2017. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after August 2017. I tried to reach out to all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator (and this work is still attached to the archivist account), please contact me using the e-mail address on [ the MTAC collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/mtac/profile)

They were working on this case for two weeks now. A petty officer had been murdered in his house in Alexandria and they’d found a suspect who seemed to have a strange bond with him.  
Gibbs suspected a drug trafficking but they hadn’t found any proof yet.

So here they were, at 3 o’clock in the morning, in a car, in the middle of a residential area, keeping their suspect’s house into surveillance.

This guy didn’t seem to have a life ! It was the third night they were watching him and everyday, it was the same scenario : he would come back from work at 7 p.m. to only go out again the next morning to pick up his newspaper and go to work.

No visitor. Apparently no friends or family.

Kate would have felt sorry for him if his lack of private life wasn’t dangerously encroaching upon her own.

It was not that she disliked going on a stake-out. Actually, she almost enjoyed it when she was with Gibbs like today.  
Contrary to Tony, he was never the one who dozed off and being close to him for a few hours was always a pleasure, especially for a few months, their relation seemed to be stronger, more enjoyable and easier than ever.

He didn’t seem to have a problem with her personal questions anymore, he still rarely answered them but easily tolerated her curiosity and smiled to her own sharing of stories and memories.

For her part, she now always let him finish her coffee and without any protesting groan or disgusted look anymore !  
She felt comfortable with him and enjoyed every moment they shared.

But still, staying awake, watching a desperately quiet house, wasn’t her favorite way of spending a night.

“ Remember me why we’re here. Nothing’s ever gonna happen, Gibbs ! This place is hopelessly dead after 8 p.m.” she sighed and blinked, trying to suppress a yawn.

“ I know Kate ! But something’s wrong with this guy, he’s involved in strange business and we’re definitely gonna find out…” he stopped, his stare suddenly focusing on their suspect’s neighbour’s house.

“ What ?” Kate asked, turning her head, wondering what had drawn his attention away.

“ What’s this ? On the rooftop ?”

She finally found the spot that had obviously bothered Gibbs and smiled at his suspicious streak.

“ This, Gibbs, is a teenage boy.” She stated, matter-of-factly.

He turned to look at her in disbelief.

“ And why would a teenage boy be on a roof at 3 a.m. ?”

“ Don’t tell me you never did that when you were young…er !”

He cocked an eyebrow at her and she wasn’t sure if it was because of the situation or the slip of her tongue.  
He stared at her, obviously waiting for an explanation as she smiled sweetly, a rush of memories popping in her head.

“ I… used to do that a lot as a teenager.”

“ Really ?”

“ Well” she continued ignoring the ‘do I have to worry about your mental health ?’ look that appeared in his eyes. “ you know, when you grow up with four siblings, especially three older brothers, it’s not always easy to find a place to be alone ! And, okay I know it’s seems weird… but a rooftop can be actually a good place to… be alone and… think.”

The corner of his mouth lifted up and she recognized the familiar twinkling in his eyes, he was mocking her !

“ Stop that !” she whined, indignantly.

“ Stop what ?” he asked with mock incredulity.

“ This… thing ! You’re laughing at me !”

“ Did you see me laughing ?” daring her to acquiesce with raised eyebrows and wide opened-eyes.

“ Yeah, inwardly !” she replied smartly, narrowing her own brown eyes.

He chuckled softly at her indignation. It was way too easy !

“ I told you to stop that !”

“ Okay, okay.” He shook his head, progressively regaining his seriousness.

Suddenly both their attention were drawn to a black BMW which parked in front of their suspect’s house.  
A stocky man slipped out of the car and was met by their suspect on the threshold.

“ See I knew something was finally going to happen !” he smiled triumphantly, his attention focused on the mysterious visitor as she stuck her tongue out at him. 

“ Get that back in your mouth, Todd, and take photos !” he mumbled humorously still not looking at her.

She rolled her eyes and complied.


	2. The arrival

Gibbs just couldn’t believe it !

He couldn’t believe the man Kate and him had seen with their suspect, during the stake-out, was a well-known drug trafficker kept under surveillance by the FBI.

He couldn’t believe how Director Morrow had ordered him to peacefully – he had strangely insisted on the word – share his investigation with the FBI.

And he couldn’t believe he was here waiting for one of the FBI’s drug unit’s agent who apparently didn’t value punctuality as he did.

Sometimes life really didn’t like him !

 

Kate was down in Abby’s lab and his two male agents were suspiciously quiet.

McGee had probably finally understood that his babbling could be really infuriating and it was the last thing Gibbs wanted to deal with when he was in such a bad mood.

And it seemed that Tony had finally learnt to simply shut up.  
He knew how much Gibbs hated to share an investigation and it was worse when it was with the FBI so, for the time being, he just kept his mouth closed as much as possible.

The three agents were drawn away from their work when a tall, black-haired man in his early thirties went and stood in front of Gibbs’ desk.  
He was wearing the typical FBI’s suit and tie and a totally untypical FBI’s smile.

He extended his hand and offered it to Gibbs who just glared at it in response.

“ You must be special agent Gibbs. Agent Mark Andrews, FBI. It’s nice to meet you.”

“ You’re late agent Andrews.” was the only answer he received from the grouchy NCIS agent.

“ Yeah, sorry agent Gibbs but I’ve been delayed at FBI headquarter by agent Fornell.”

A smirk appeared on Gibbs’ face at the mention of his ‘old friend’s’ name.

“ For what ? A warning ?” he asked, cocking his head in a fake innocent expression.

“ Hum… well…” the young man babbled, shifting his weight from one foot to another.

Taking pity on the FBI agent, Tony got up from his desk and extended his hand with a bright smile. He introduced himself to the newcomer as well as ‘Probie’ who got up from his desk, giving Tony a look and shook agent Andrews’ hand.

“ Nice to meet you, agent Andrews !”

“ Call me Mark, please !” he asked the three agents.

“ Fine ! Now that the introductions are made maybe we could go back to work.” Gibbs grunted, losing the little patience he still had.

“ Actually, Mark hasn’t met Kate yet, Boss” Tony added insolently as the female agent appeared behind agent Andrews.

Seeing her approached, Gibbs got up in an attempt to quickly introduce agent Andrews to her and eventually go back to their investigation.

“ Agent Andrews, agent Ka…”

“ Katie !” the young man blurted out, interrupting Gibbs when he finally turned to her.

Gibbs, Tony and McGee, surprised, looked at each other at the mention of Kate’s nickname.  
And Gibbs frowned at the mention of HIS nickname.  
They quickly turned toward their colleague, expecting a hint of an answer to their obvious but unspoken questions.

Kate, for her part, didn’t pay any attention to her co-workers. She couldn’t believe Mark Andrews was actually in front of her. She hadn’t seen the man for six years.  
At that time, they were in love and engaged, ready to start a family. And, one day, he had received a job offer in the FBI’s drug unit of Los Angeles, which was a great career move for him. Kate had been in the beginning of her career with the secret service and so had had to stay in Washington. It’d been, at this moment, they’d realized none of them was ready to give up their job for the other and most of all, none of them was ready to ask the other to give up his job.  
He had take the job and so it’d been the end of both the engagement and the relationship.

And now, here he was, in front of her, in the middle of the bullpen ! She certainly hadn’t expecting that when she’d waken up this morning !

“ Mark… oh my god ! I can’t believe it’s you” she exclaimed softly, a smile crossing her features “ What are you doing here ?” she asked as he took her in his arms.

“ Well, working with you, apparently.” He gently pulled back to look at her properly “ You’re absolutely stunning, you know !”

She blushed unaware of the three other agents still silent, amazed by the scene playing in front of them.

“ Thank you. But I thought you were in California ?”

“ And I thought you were with the secret service !” he replied, sharing an understanding smile with her.

They were interrupted by a sudden cough behind them and turned to see Gibbs with an expectant and impatient look as Tony walked toward them, a wide smile playing across his lips.

“ So, hum… you two know each other !”


	3. Storm and sunshine

Gibbs wasn’t in a good mood today and it was getting on everyone’s nerves.  
Actually, if he was honest with himself, he wasn’t in a good mood for about a month, since FBI agent Mark Andrews came into his life and it was even worse since the same agent came back into Caitlin Todd’s love life.

Their collaboration had been quite brief, with the FBI’s information and his team’s work, the case had been closed within a week during which he had taken time to thoroughly study Andrews’ interaction with his female agent.

He’d heard all of their ‘Do you remember… ?’ stories, noticed his deep knowledge of her family and inwardly grimaced at the thought of how her mother used to call him ‘her perfect son-in-law’. He had pretended not to listen or care but he’d heard all of that.

And everything had been worse the day they’d closed the case.

Tony and Abby had decided to celebrate the end of the investigation with a few drinks in a bar. They had invited agent Andrews and also asked Gibbs to join them. He’d surprised everyone including himself by agreeing to go with them.

Afterwards, he’d told himself, it wasn’t to see what was going to happen between Kate and Andrews that he’d accepted.

That evening, they’d drank, talked and laughed. And after a fair amount of alcohol and a few dances, the ‘perfect couple’ had been re-formed, his Kate and her cute FBI agent were getting back together in front of Tony, Ducky, Abby, McGee and himself !

And since that day, he had been unbearable.

He actually didn’t know why exactly, but today was worse than usually.  
This morning, Kate had appeared with a bright smile on her face and homemade cookies in hands and that was it !

He had barked, all day long, at everyone who’d crossed his path and especially at Kate who was still trying to figure out what she’d done wrong in the past weeks for him to be so pissed at her.

 

They were now the only ones left in the bullpen. McGee had quickly finished his case report and Tony had left early for a date, mouthing a sympathetic ‘Good luck’ to Kate.

They were working in silence but the tension that had desperately drifted between them the whole day was still present.  
Kate was the first to break the quietness and the seeming peace that reigned in the bullpen.

“ Do you have Abby’s note on the Truman’s case ?” she simply asked.  
As soon as she opened the mouth though, she heard a long sigh coming from her left, something that had happened an awful lot of times for a few weeks and that was already too much for her.

“ Now that’s enough !” she heard herself blurting out.

“ Do you have a problem, agent Todd ?” Gibbs asked in a calm and controlled tone that only unnerved her more.

“ A problem ? Do I have a problem ?” she couldn’t help it but she couldn’t stop herself now, it was about time to sort this thing out. “ You’re kidding me ! I’m not the one with a problem here, agent Gibbs !” she was almost yelling at him now and he was looking at her with a deadly glare.

“ And what the hell make you think I have a problem !” he asked his voice turning sharp as his eyes narrowed slightly.

She moved around to stand in front of his desk and crossed her arms in a defensive posture.

“ Oh, I don’t know maybe the fact that you’ve been an unbearable bastard for a few weeks now or the fact that you don’t even tolerate any word coming from my mouth anymore. I’d say that’s pretty obvious that you’ve got a problem with me so I wanna know what the hell is the matter with you ?”

“ I do not have a problem. Do I have to remember you who the boss here is, agent Todd ? If you still want to have a job when you’ll leave this building, you’d better watch your tone with me. Do I make myself clear ?”

Ignoring his question, she quickly went back to her desk and gathered her stuff.

“ I asked you a question agent Todd !” she heard him exclaimed from his desk as she turned her back on him. She then slowly turned around to look him in the eye.

“ You know what ? Go to hell !” And with that she promptly stormed off, letting him no chance to stop her or reply.

 

****************************

 

When he’d called her she was on her way back to home, he’d asked her to come his apartment and she’d hesitated.  
She was so angry with Gibbs, she was still fuming and she didn’t want to see Mark in this mood and risk to have an argument with him as well.

But, right now, she really needed to see a friendly face.

She didn’t understand Gibbs, she suffered his bad mood for about a month now. It seemed that it all began when Mark had come to work with them and Gibbs had been everything but friendly with him.  
She’d first thought it was because he was a FBI agent but as days passed she’d started to wonder if the reason wasn’t a little more… personal.

The elevator’s door opened and Kate shook her head trying to get her boss out of her mind as she knocked at Mark’s door.

“ Hey honey ! Come in.” he welcomed her, delivering a sweet kiss to her lips.

As she came into the apartment, she saw candles everywhere and a bottle of champagne on the table. She turned to face him, wanting to understand.

“ This is beautiful, Mark… what’s the occasion ?” she asked curious.

“ I needed to talk to you, come on, have a seat.” He took her cold hand in his warmer ones, gently kissed it and led her to the table.

“ I’ve been thinking a lot recently. In fact, I’ve been thinking a lot since that day I finally saw you again, a month ago. I’ve realized how badly I screwed up six years ago. The most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my life was leaving you and I don’t want something like that to ever happen again.”

Kate was amazed and speechless, she had a feeling she knew exactly where he wanted to go, this was pretty obvious but she’d never thought he would do this so… soon.

“ Katie, we’ve already wasted too much time, I want to go back to where we’d stopped six years ago.”

He knelt in front of her and took a small red box out of his pocket, opening it to let her see a beautiful diamond ring.

“ Kate, would you marry me ?”


	4. the confrontation

Ducky had been the first to notice her engagement ring and he had immediately acted like the proud father.

He’d told her how he thought Mark was a good man and how truly happy he was for her. But yet, she had seen something behind his pleased gaze. She couldn’t really put her finger on it but it seemed like something held him back to completely give in to pure joy about her decision.  
She’d tried to ignore the question in his eyes though, there was no reason this wasn’t the good choice.

Abby was really excited about the whole thing and had already begun to plan the wedding ceremonial, it seemed like the Goth had a romantic streak after all.

Tony, for his part, had acted exactly like her over-protective brothers had six years ago. Trying to know more about Mark, to make sure he was good enough for his ‘little sister’.

And she hadn’t seen Gibbs, the whole day, she knew though that her not-so subtle co-workers had let the news slipped. Still, she didn’t know what had been his reaction.

After their ‘little disagreement’ the day before, she hadn’t been able to get him out of her thoughts. Of course, since she’d met him, he’d always been in her mind, one way or another, but even when Mark had proposed to her, their argument had been in the back of her mind and she’d angrily wondered why she should care about a man so narrow-minded and unpleasant when she had, by her side, a nice man who wanted nothing more than to make her happy.

When she’d fallen asleep in her fiancé’s arms, her thoughts were still for her stubborn boss and she’d begun to find this hold he could have over her, even when he wasn’t actually with her, very frustrating.

 

She was looking for her keys in her purse when she heard a low voice behind her.

“ I heard about the good news.”

She turned around to be faced by the infuriating subject of her thoughts, just a few inches from her. She shrugged then slowly nodded.

“ Hmm… yes.” 

He stared at her for a few seconds then took another step towards her and slowly raised his big right hand to take her small left one and examined the sparkling jewel. 

“ Nice !”

“ Yes.. it is, thanks.” She softly replied looking at their joined hands. “ Gibbs… about yesterday…”

He sharply raised his head, looking at her angrily, memories of their previous discussion coming into his head.

“ Yeah, Kate ? What do you have to say ?” his sharp tone cutting her apologies and she suddenly remembered all the reasons why she had been so angry at him the day before.

“ Nothing, forget it !” she then turned toward her car, cursing him under her breath.

“ Wait we haven’t done with it !” his furious tone ringing out in the air.

Before she could reply, she felt a strong hand on her arm and her back hit her car’s door, Gibbs’ two powerful hands firmly held her face while he violently took her upper lip between his and sucked on it hungrily.

Kate, completely taken aback by his action, uncontrollably whimpered and opened her mouth, offering him more access. He immediately responded by taking possession of her mouth, entirely, his tongue unashamedly caressing hers as her hands lightly stroked his firm chest through his clothes.

They were caught up in the exploration of each other’s mouth as their panting breathing filled the air around them. Kate forgot herself and the world apart from them as she tasted the most amazing kiss she’d ever received until she didn’t feel his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her face anymore.

Her eyes, which had been closed as soon as she’d felt his lips against hers, progressively opened. For a few seconds she thought she could perceive some uncertainty in Gibbs’ eyes until he quickly covered it with his traditional unreadable stare.

“ It’s late, go home !” 

The order was given in a breathless voice as Gibbs was still feeling the aftermath of the kiss but the insensitivity of it let Kate shuddering and astonished.  
What exactly had just happened here ?

Before she could even reply, he turned around and she was let alone in the middle of the parking lot with only the vision of his solid back disappearing toward the place where his own car might have been.

She finally opened her car’s door, heavily fell on the seat, her head against the headrest, a hundred of questions filling her mind.

 

************************

 

The next morning, Kate left her apartment earlier than usually. She hadn’t slept at all.  
When she’d come back, yesterday, Mark was there waiting for her, she’d feigned an awful headache and gone to bed early.

But she hadn’t slept. During the whole night, she’d been torn by contradictory emotions. The guilt for lying to Mark, the anger against Gibbs and most of all his attitude after the kiss but also an other feeling she couldn’t really describe, the shiver that travelled her body every time she thought about the kiss and how truly and totally she’d responded to it.

These thoughts had kept her awake all night long and now she needed answers and only one person could give them to her.

That was the reason why she came to work an hour earlier than she usually would. She needed to see him alone to understand.   
Had it been just an insignificant kiss ? Or did it really mean something to him ? Was Gibbs the kind of men who realized what they had when they lost it ?

The elevator’s doors opened and she made her way to the bullpen, he was already (or still ?) there, sitting on his desk. As he heard footstep, he slowly raised his head making eye contact with her then returned to his work without a word for her.

But she wouldn’t let him ignore her so easily, she went and stood in front of his desk, silently waiting.

“ What ? he sharply asked, still concentrating on his report.

“ Can we talk ?”

“ About what ?”

She sighed loudly, he obviously wouldn’t make it easy.

“ Well, I don’t know, what about… yesterday ?”

He put both his hands on his desk and slowly raised his eyes, speaking in a strong yet low voice.

“ There’s nothing to say.”

“ There’s nothing to say ! That’s your answer ?” she couldn’t believe he’d actually said that.

“ Listen, what happened yesterday was a mistake, okay, it was stupid, just forget it !” his tone, totally controlled, made her understand that his decision wasn’t up for a debate.

Kate swallowed with difficulty and unwillingly acquiesced.

“ Fine !” she sharply replied before heading back to the elevator, after all she still an hour and today she would need coffee, a lot of coffee.


End file.
